How Will The New London Number 10 Bus Turn Round At Mildmay Park?
The new London Bus 10 is going to terminate near my house at probably the four-way junction of the Balls Pond Road/Mildmay Park/Southgate Road.
This Google Map shows the area.
Note.
- The road about a third of the way down the map, that goes across the map is the Balls Pond Road of 1950s and 1960s fame on the BBC radio shows Beyond our Ken and Round the Horn.
- If you like your comedy with lashings of double entendres, then check out the shows. They have Wikipedia entries.
- At the West end oof the map, is the Essex Road, which takes buses to and from the Angel and Central London.
- Southgate Road and Mildmay Park form a North-South route towards the East of the map.
- Southgate Road leads South to Old Street and the City of London.
- Mildmay Park leads North to Newington Green, Clissold Park and Manor House.
Sometimes, buses from Central London turn-back in this area, by taking this route.
- The bus comes North up the Essex Road and turns right into the Balls Pond Road.
- It stops in the Balls Pond Road and drops off any remaining passengers.
- At the set of traffic lights, the bus will turn into Southgate Road.
- The bus, then turns into Dove Road and proceeds to its Western end.
- The bus company has an office in the block at the end, so drivers can also take a comfort break before returning to Central London.
I have seen buses taking this route several times in the last month, so it could be likely that it will be used in future to turn the buses.
Will New Routemasters Continue To Be Used?
At least initially, I suspect, but London will replace them with zero-carbon buses. Hopefully, they won’t be the inadequate BYD electric-buses on route 141?
How Will Buses Be Recharged?
At some point, the buses will probably be charged in this area.
There doesn’t seem to be a suitable place, so will the buses be charged at the other end of the route, which is Battersea Bridge.
Perhaps, the solution is to convert the Routemasters to zero-carbon?
I See My First Driverless Car
The pictures show the first driverless car, that I’ve seen.
It was happily going along the Balls Pond Road, where it stopped immaculately at the lights, at the junction with Southgate Road.
Recently, a pedestrian was killed at those lights by a truck. It looks like he didn’t understand the sequence of the lights and stepped out, when he shouldn’t.
As a Control Engineer, I have a feeling, that driverless cars will never live up to the hype.
Buses On London Route 141 Now Go In Convoy
I took these pictures at the Balls Pond Road stop on the route.
Sometimes you wait as long as twenty minutes for one to come along, but here were three in a similar number of minutes.
When I was at school, there were stories from the Second World War, when after a bus was hit by a German bomb, that buses on one route went in convoy for protection.
Perhaps, the buses are practicing for when Putin decides to attack London?
Or is it just another manifestation of the service on the worst bus route in London?
Don’t Live In Islington If You’re A Pedestrian!
On Sunday, I went to lunch with my son in Walthamstow.
To catch the bus, I have to negotiate these these traffic lights at Southgate and Balls Pond Roads.
Note that to operate the lights, you must push the button to cross.
As I reached forward to push the button to cross, a car came racing up from Dalston Junction.
- Seeing me standing there with my hand forward, he thought it would be funny to give me a good splashing, which he did by going through the deep water.
- His girlfriend was laughing as she passed close by me in the nearside seat.
- Unfortunately, I didn’t get to read the car’s registration number.
- But I did see the Tesla logo on the boot.
If I had though, judging by the look of the guy and his girl, he might not have been the sort of guy, you report to the police.
What really annoyed me, was having to walk back to my house to change into dry clothes.
I do hope though, that the Borough of Islington fix the levels of the roads to eliminate the flooding.
But they are not good as street presentation as I wrote about in Islington Socialism At Work!
How Not To Organise A Piss-Up In A Brewery
This afternoon, I wanted to get some lunch and buy my food for the weekend.
I live close to the junction of Southgate Road, Mildmay Park and the Balls Pond Road.
From the four bus stops there, I can get buses to the stopping centres of Angel, Dalston Kingsland, Hackney Central and Moorgate.
But not today, as all the bus stops had been closed!
As my leg was playing up, there was no way, I could have walked to the next stop.
In the end I created a fuss and a kind driver let me on a 141 bus to get to Moorgate.
Coming back, I got another 141 bus, which got stuck in the traffic jam, that the part-closure of the junction was creating.
Note.
- The 141 bus took five minutes to pass through the junction.
- Luckily, the driver was sensible and he let a lot of us out.
- As I live South of the Balls Pond Road, it was very convenient.
Obviously, the driver knew more about customer service, that the idiots who organised this megashambles.
I have a few thoughts.
Where Was The Publicity?
I use the 141 bus most days and I didn’t see anything at the bus stops and didn’t get any leaflets through the door.
The Traffic Lights At Southgate And Balls Pond Roads Are Unreliable
They were even worse, when I moved here and Transport for London replaced them a few years ago.
But they seem to have got more unreliable.
Where is John Cleese to give them a good thrashing?
The Silvertown Tunnel Effect
Consider.
- I asked a regular delivery driver, what is the gossip about the Silvertown Tunnel and he felt that it will gum up East London.
- This is my feeling, as before my stroke, I had driven all over the East End trying to save time and knew it well.
- I also feel, that a lot of heavy traffic will end up on the Balls Pond Road, trying to get to and from the M1 and A1, especially, when the Dartford Crossing is closed.
I am fairly certain, that at certain times the junction at Southgate Road, Mildmay Park and the Balls Pond Road is going to get very congested.
The Non-Availability Of Taxis
One of the reasons, I chose to live where I do, is that I am just off the route which taxis use to go back to Liverpool Street station.
But the number of taxis in the area has decreased substantially in the last few years.
- Islington’s Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are scaring taxis away.
- Many drivers are giving up.
- Taxis are expensive.
Consequently, I rarely use a taxi. I never saw one today, when it was needed.
The Junction Is Busy For Pedestrians
Crossing the junction is dangerous, as cyclists only consider the lights optional.
If I’d had a pound for every time, I’d nearly been hit by a cyclist or car on this junction, I could pay for a year’s electricity.
Mildmay Park Station
The area used to have its own station at Mildmay Park about 120 metres to the North of the junction.
This Google Map shows the site of the station.
Note.
- The railway is the North London Line.
- Highbury & Islington station is to the West.
- Dalston Kingsland station is to the East.
Mildmay Park station is marked by the blue arrow on the bridge over the railway.
It would be a very handy Coming-Home station, as its downhill all the way, from the station to my house.
Conclusion
Reopening Mildmay Park station would be good for the price of my house, by I doubt that anything will be done.
Chaos In The Balls Pond Road
The roadworks that caused all the problems with the buses, last week are still ongoing. There are no open bus stops and just one narrow lane for the traffic.
One Narrow Lane In The Balls Pond Road
When I left home this lunchtime, I walked to the next stop, where there was an angry crowd and even angrier drivers trying to get onto the Balls Pond Road.
The diversion on Dove Road was congested and totally inadequate, especially as they were running extra buses as the Overground was closed, so putting a large number of extra passengers on the buses. When I returned later in the afternoon, the problems were made worse, by everybody trying to get to the Emirates to see Arsenal at home to Liverpool.
If they’d wanted to organise chaos, they’d created it, in the best way possible.
I was talking to a bus driver and he blamed Boris, which was a bit unfair.
As my background is project planning and management, I believe this chaos was all down to no co-ordination between the parties involved. The Arsenal match has been in the calendar for months, so surely to do the necessary resurfacing work, on a match day was a bad decision. It was probably costly too, as it meant that all of the chaos, meant that not as much progress as had been hoped was made.
Surely too, the Overground should have been kept open, whilst the road was effectively closed, as this closure imposes extra strains on the road network.
The only good thing about the roadworks, was that I could cross Southgate Road with ease.
A Closed Southgate Road
But crossing the Balls Pond Road is difficult for pedestrains, as there are no lights and we’ve been left to our own devices and wits.
No-one seems to have any idea, how long this chaos will go on. Although this notice mentions that Phase 5 ends on the first of December.
I can’t help feeling, that traffic problems in the area would be helped on match days, if the Northern City line was open between Finsbury Park and Moorgate. Perhaps, when Thameslink is fully established this line will get some long-needed improvement.
The Anonymous Widower 